Former HPE executive, Kaaren Lewis, trades consultancy for Canon Australia

Kaaren Lewis - Business Services general manager of sales, Canon Australia

Canon Australia has named Kaaren Lewis as its new Business Services general manager of sales. The role covers all the business segments of Canon Australia, from traditional print products and solutions through to production print, network security, cloud services, and the broader portfolio of Harbour IT and Converga.

"We really want to now leverage these acquisitions and that is going to be one of the key drivers going forward. We want to look beyond the traditional, siloed parts of each one of those businesses. That then enables customers and businesses to have a broad partner and platform for the future," Lewis told ARN.

Lewis took on the role in January after working on her consultancy, Lewis Furneaux Consulting, for less than a year.

She told ARN the businesses acquired during her run at Lewis Furneaux Consulting have been handed over to another consulting company to ensure continuity of services.

"Towards the end of last year, I started winding down some of those opportunities but I made sure they are being looked after. I will look at whether we keep the naming there as part of the portfolio or if we wind it up.

"It was fabulous being able to help businesses from a consultancy perspective, but leveraging the background I had, I was missing being in a large, corporate environment," she mentioned.

Previously, Lewis served as A/NZ channel, SMB and alliances director at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) for more than two years, before resigning to launch her own channel consultancy.

Canon Australia said Lewis was hired for her strong background across software, hardware and services in both vendor and the channel community within the trans-Tasman region.

Canon Business Services director, Gavin Gomes, said Lewis’ 20-plus years of sales and business management experience, skills and relationships within the ICT industry will benefit her in her role at the vendor.

"Kaaren has a successful track record of developing and implementing operating frameworks, financial management, strategies and programs that drive business, improve sales and increase margins across all customer segments," he said.

Gomes said Lewis also has a strong commercial business, general management and leadership background with a demonstrated ability to analyse business needs, provide vision and consistently translate these into business results.

"We believe that with her depth of skills, experience, relationships and network across Australia, New Zealand & Asia Pacific Kaaren will greatly contribute to our success and establish a strong foundation for the future,” he added.

Prior to HPE, Lewis was the Asia-Pacific and Japan ISV software director at Dell for two years, while also serving as its A/NZ software and peripherals director for two years.

Lewis worked as A/NZ director for Insight between 2006 and 2009 and also has experience working at Compaq and IBM.

“Canon, in conjunction with their Group Companies, Harbour IT and Converga, has such a broad portfolio of solutions across printing, services, medical imaging and network security all the way through to BPO, mail & hospitality services, IT managed services and cloud solutions," Lewis added.

“This makes for a great combination and enables Canon to work with a broad spectrum of customers to deliver solutions that help them achieve their business outcomes in a competitive and challenging business environment."

Lewis' appointment comes shortly after the hire of Gomes, as reported by ARN in June 2016.